SHOPPERS RETURN FOR BARGAINS

Lehigh Valley stores reported that icy and snowy roads kept shoppers away from the after-Christmas sales yesterday morning, but by afternoon the bargain hunters were out in full force.

"It got off a little slower than we anticipated," said John Leh II, a partner at H. Leh & Co. "But as soon as the streets became a little better, it started picking up and became as good as we anticipated."

Bob Clewell, operating manager for the Sears store in the Whitehall Mall, reported the same. "It's been a little below our expectations, but it picked up in the afternoon."

He also believed the initial small crowd of shoppers was due to the cold and icy conditions.

Leh speculated that day-after-Christmas sales for the department store were stronger this year than in 1984. He noted that last year, the day after Christmas was a Wednesday.

"Thursday is normally a better shopping day," he said.

Fred Bentelspecher, vice president of sales promotion for Hess's department store, said that in addition to exchanging and returning gifts, people were also buying.

"The whole country seems to feel the day after Christmas is just for returns," he said. "People receive money and gift certificates for Christmas, then go use them."

At the John Wanamaker store in the Lehigh Valley Mall, people did heavy buying in the "Trim the Tree Shop" where items were 50 percent off.

Rita Eisenberg, director of special events for Wanamaker's, said that 1985 had been an exceptionally good for the store in comparison to other years. This was despite there only being four weeks, not the usual five weeks, between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

"We lost six days and there was an expected downward projection, but people shopped in four weeks as in the five-week period," she said.

Eisenberg said that this year more people were returning gifts because they received the present in the wrong size or color, not because they didn't like the gift.